S.F. ‘dream project’ sits in ruins, but hope for funding remains

Dan Weaver, board chairman of the nonprofit Friends of the Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse and leading advocate for the building, is finally getting to see the upside of his dream project.

Photo: Loren Elliott / Loren Elliott / The Chronicle

More than 10 years after neighbors rescued San Francisco’s Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse from demolition and vowed to restore it, the structure sits empty.

Largely forgotten in the midst of budget cuts and private fundraising shortfalls, the dilapidated building looms over the intersection of San Jose and Geneva avenues like a haunted mansion. Weeds grow in an area many hoped would become a theater, and a 1988 phone book dangles from an abandoned office wall.

The unfinished project is the result of good intentions gone awry. But new leadership and a more feasible, phased timeline may allow a portion of the building to be renovated within two years.

“Sometimes dream projects like this take time to come to fruition,” San Francisco Recreation and Park Department Director Phil Ginsburg said. “We’ve had great designs and momentum over the past four or five years, but the piece that has been missing is funding. It’s a big project, and we needed to start thinking about it differently.”

The car barn is 114 years old and looks it. It was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and has been empty ever since. The rumble of Muni trains running on San Jose Avenue fills the empty rooms like the ghosts of an electric railway past.

6of6An ancient Muni logo is seen inside the Geneva Car Barn Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015. The building housed Muni cars until 1989, when it was abandoned and the city tried to demolish it. The nonprofit "Friends of the Geneva Office Building and Powerhouse" plans to have it fully converted to a community space for meetings and youth programs by 2020.Photo: Loren Elliott / The Chronicle

In 2014, the Board of Supervisors and the parks department promised the Friends of the Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse control of the building — as long as the group met a series of funding goals. But the nonprofit, founded by residents of San Francisco’s southern neighborhoods more than 10 years ago, failed to raise the mandated $14.5 million.

The nonprofit’s ambitious master plan envisioned a renovated Powerhouse and office building, which together comprise almost 20,000 square feet. The space was meant to serve as a community gathering place, complete with programming, a cafe, an exhibition space, a theater, a student lounge and artist studios. The only aspect of the $29 million venture completed was a $1.4 million seismic upgrade and roof replacement for the office building.

“It just didn’t work out,” said Dan Weaver, chairman of the Friends of the Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse board. “We were sitting around for many years not getting anything done. Out of this is coming a plan to move forward in pieces and for the city to take charge of construction.”

This month, the city is voiding the agreement with the nonprofit and taking back control. The project has been scaled down and split into a two-phase approach. The Powerhouse, which was used to store Muni vehicles, will be renovated first at a cost of $6.3 million. It is set to be finished within two years. The office building will follow, funded — it is hoped — by a Recreation and Park bond scheduled for 2018.

Community ‘sluggish’

Signs advertising future plans for the 114-year-old Geneva Car Barn, which housed Muni cars until 1989, are seen on the building's exterior at San Jose Avenue.

Photo: Loren Elliott / Photos by Loren Elliott / The Chronicle

“The community has been sluggish to do their own fundraising and collaborate with the city,” Supervisor John Avalos said. “Now we are at a place where we can actually see something happening. The city involvement is going to make a big difference moving forward.”

About half of the first phase has already been funded through Rec and Park, and the rest should come from historic tax credits — a federal program for historic buildings that provides funding for a portion of the project — the Community Arts Stabilization Trust and private donations.

Construction on the first phase could break ground in fall 2016. The new design, a simplified version of the master plan, will include hazardous material remediation, seismic stabilization, improved entrances, a new roof, restored windows and electrical systems. The Powerhouse will be used as a community space for youth and arts programs.

“The transformation of this neighborhood asset will create a community gathering and arts space that the Excelsior, Oceanview, Merced Heights and Ingleside have long deserved,” said Joaquin Torres, deputy director of the Invest In Neighborhoods Initiative, a program of the office of economic and workforce development. We’ve “put the Powerhouse on a path that will have the doors open while being a model for the activation of vacant buildings citywide.”

‘Create a neighborhood’

Dan Weaver, Chairman of the Board at the nonprofit "Friends of the Geneva Office Building and Powerhouse", is seen inside the partially renovated structure Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015. The building housed Muni cars until 1989, when it was abandoned and the city tried to demolish it. Weaver's organization plans to have it fully converted to a community space for meetings and youth programs by 2020.

Photo: Loren Elliott / The Chronicle

City officials and neighbors are hoping the building will serve as a community cornerstone, drawing more people to an area thousands of commuters pass through every day without stopping on their way to work. The building rests where the Excelsior and the Ingleside districts meet on the southern edge of the city.

“It’s largely been a dead, industrialized and struggling area,” Avalos said. “We are trying to create a neighborhood where there hasn’t been a sense of neighborhood. We are in a spot where we actually are able to stitch together all of the neighborhoods surrounding it and create a destination spot. There’s a lot of excitement in the city to be able to make it happen.”

Lizzie Johnson is a recovering political reporter who now covers general assignment stories, frequently writing about environmental issues and major breaking news across the state. She led The Chronicle’s coverage of the Wine Country Wildfires — the most destructive blazes in state history. Johnson joined The Chronicle in 2015 to cover City Hall and moved to the metro desk in 2017. Before joining the newsroom, Johnson worked at the Chicago Tribune, the Dallas Morning News, the Omaha World-Herald and El Sol de San Telmo, a daily in Buenos Aires. A Nebraska native, she is an alumna of the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is an eternal optimist and aspiring golden-doodle owner.